The Gemcutter's Daughter

6 - Fire-Swimmer

"What are you doing, little dwarf?" The siren still perched on a shelf of rock above the pool, gaze fixed on the forsaken's fitfully sleeping form. Her eyes were hooded, almost as if barely awake herself, but that was deceptive.

    Tali ran her fingers over the marks she'd made in the earth, then measured her cut bars of mushroom stalk. She'd found a builder of the right size and cut just enough to construct her current project. She was careful not to take too much, not when those resources were precious. "I'm building a pack for Eiv. That way we can carry more food and water."

    Rhesis stretched her whole body in one fluid movement. "That was not what I meant."

    Tali focused hard on folding and tying the canvas that would form most of the pack. Despite Rhesis's good behavior, her purring tones made Tali want to freeze like an oami confronted by a hunting norvar. "What did you mean?" She punctuated her sentence with a few clicks. Lekt still seemed to be asleep, which made her less worried.

    "The abomination." The siren's voice remained as soft as tefia silk. "You would be better served killing him. It is what he will attempt on you when given the opportunity."

    Tali started knotting the cord she had, tying the canvas to the constructed frame. It went some way towards hiding the trembling in her hands. "I'm a gemcutter, not a warrior."

    "If you wish, I can end him."

    The young dwarf turned her face towards the sleeping creature. "He's too hurt to harm anything."

    "The best time to strike."

    Tali shook her head. "I don't want to hurt anything. That's not why I'm here."

    Rhesis smiled. "You may find that the world will not give you such a choice. The Deep is not kind to those who lack the mettle to strike before they are struck."

    There was a certain cold reality to the siren's words and Tali understood at least at a surface level that it was a mindset of necessity, what the warriors who guarded Dhuldarim alongside the golems believed. They made an incredible sacrifice to guard the Artifice, most of all in the way they offered their hearts to harden. Someone had to be strong enough to confront the forsaken, or the lands of Tek would be overrun and utterly destroyed.

    "I'm a gemcutter."

    Rhesis laughed. "And what does that mean, little dwarf? You say it as if some magic charm."

    Tali sighed, trying not to be irritated, even though that anger pushed back against her fear. "You wouldn't understand. You're not a dwarf."

    "Oh?"

    The dwarf knew she was being needled. She turned to face the siren. "It means that Dhuldarim chose and taught me to add beauty to the world, no matter how ugly it seems. Gemcutting was gifted to dwarves to remind skyborn and stoneborn alike that Tek's love for them is eternal even without the song of his voice."

    The answer, given with earnest force, seemed to take Rhesis aback. "Here I had thought he was as cold as his metal."

    "A fire burns at the heart of Tek as surely as it burns at the heart of the world." Tali remained as steeped in her people's traditions as any dwarf. The Heartforges taught that remembering such myths and stories was an integral part of holding their world together without Tek. If dwarves ever forgot their place in the cosmos, it would bring their destruction.

    She turned at a noise to see Lekt both awake and far closer than she was expecting. Tali flinched, almost leaping up. She stammered in her clicking for a moment before she settled her racing heart somewhat.